When General Hurlbut took command of the District of Jackson, with his head-quarters at Jackson, Tenn., Brigadier-General Lauman took command of the post at Bolivar.
On the 13th day of October, 1862, I reported to General Lauman for orders to go out on a scout. I received instructions to take with me a squad of ten men, and reconnoiter thoroughly a strip of country that lay south of Bolivar, between the road to Grand Junction, which would be on my right, and the road to Pocahontas, which would be on my left. I was ordered to kill all the guerrillas that I could find, bring in all that I had strong suspicions were guerrillas, and capture all the straggling rebel soldiers and arms that I could find. The General also told me that he would send out cavalry on my right, on the Grand Junction road, and, on my left, on the Pocahontas road. He did not limit me in time, or the distance to go, nor instruct me to take rations. I have usually, when out as a scout or spy, got my subsistence wherever I went.
The men that I selected to accompany me were Sergeants W. G. Downs and Thomas Watson, and eight privates, all of them from the 20th Ohio Infantry. It was nearly noon of the day I received my instructions before we were ready to march. The day was extremely warm, and we made but slow progress. We did not follow any road, but took our way across the fields and woods, and examined all the valleys that lay along our route for any signs that might exist of cavalry or guerrillas.
At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we called at a house about eight miles from Bolivar, which we found to be owned and occupied by a widow lady by the name of Cheshire, who, by the way, is what might be called a Confederate widow. Her husband had belonged to the Confederate army, but had deserted. He came home and took the oath of allegiance, but, unfortunately for him, was captured by the Confederate authorities, and the oath found in his pocket. He was carried back to the rebel army and hung. In my scouts in the Southern Confederacy, I found that widows were of frequent occurrence, and the proportion of them to the population remaining at home was astonishingly large. I am inclined to think that many of the ladies chose to call themselves widows, rather than admit to Union soldiers (if they knew them to be such) that their husbands were in the rebel army. I call them all, whether real or professed, that have become such on account of the war, Confederate widows.
At Mrs. Cheshire's we procured our supper, which was provided and served up by her with a cheerfulness and willingness not characteristic of an enmity to the Federal Government. I offered to pay her, but she positively refused to receive any compensation.
After we had finished our supper, we moved a mile and a half, to Mr. Campbell's, where we halted for the night. Mr. Campbell was absent from home, but his wife extended to us every assistance that she could to make us comfortable. She gave us a room in the house to occupy during the night, and in the morning a bountiful breakfast was prepared for us, of which sweet potatoes and chickens formed no inconsiderable part. I offered to pay her, but she refused to accept any remuneration, and expressed astonishment at the gentlemanly behavior of the whole party. She said that it was the first time that Federal soldiers had ever visited her house, and she had heard that they were nothing but a set of thieves and robbers, and, for that reason, she had been happily disappointed in our behavior.
Thanking her for her compliments and hospitality, we bade her a good morning, and resumed our march. We had proceeded only about two miles, when we discovered a small squad of rebel soldiers, in a large cotton-field, at some distance in advance of us and to our right. As soon as they saw us, they broke for the woods; the distance that they had in advance made it useless for us to pursue.
Near the road, and between where we saw them and ourselves, stood a dwelling-house. Having observed that but one of the rebs had arms, the thought occurred to me that the others might have left theirs at the house, and that our approach had been discovered too late to allow of a return for them; so I determined to institute a search. On entering, I inquired of an elderly man present if there were any arms about the house. He said there was not. I told him that I had reason to believe that there was. He insisted that there was not. A search was made, and three guns were found, which we carried with us.
At night we halted fourteen miles from Bolivar. On former trips, I had learned that a squad of guerrillas were stopping somewhere in that vicinity; during the day we had obtained a partial list of their names, and had learned that they were harbored by a Mr. W. S. Perry, who was also supposed to be one. This information we gathered from the people that we saw in our route.
At 3 o'clock the next morning we were again under way, on a road leading direct to Mr. Perry's. When we had gone about a mile, we came to a farm-house, where I halted my men, and aroused the inmates by rapping upon the door, which was answered by, "Who is there?"